Up to 38 mostly brown bears have escaped from their enclosure at the Hachimantai bear park in Akita prefecture, Japan, killing two staff members and forcing locals to stay indoors. (Barbara Sax/AFP/Getty Images)

A sloth of bears who escaped from a park enclosure in northern Japan has killed two women.

News.com.au says that the exact number of bears on the loose is unknown, but that they were among 38 mostly brown bears usually kept at the Hachimantai bear park in Akita prefecture.

AFP describes how the bodies of the women had been recovered within the gated park, and were thought to be those of workers at the facility.

Authorities were struggling to gain control of the situation, according to The Telegraph, which quoted a spokeswoman for Akita Police as saying: "We cannot go close to the park because we don't know which cages are open, and how many bears are on the loose."